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The  Miracle  of 
Modern  Missions 


Korea 


By  Rev.  XV.  XV.  Pinson 


UNIFORM  ENVELOPE  SERIES 
China  Korea  Japan 
Mexico  Brazil  Cuba 


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WHATEVER  may  be  the  result,  the 
development  of  events  in  Korea 
will  be  watched  by  many  with  the 
keenest  interest;  and  not  the  least  in- 
terested will  be  those  who  see  in  the 
strange  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  at 
Pyengyang  an  analogous  manifesta- 
tion of  that  which  preceded  the  great 
Wesleyan  movement.  You  have  only 
to  read  the  journal  of  John  Wesley 
and  compare  it  with  the  account  of  the 
manifestation  at  Pyengyang  to  realise 
that  the  phenomena  are  very  closely 
akin.  There  is  in  both  cases  an  extra- 
ordinary manifestation  of  power;  peo- 
ple are  convinced  of  their  sins  by  an- 
other force  than  reason,  and  the  power 
that  convinced  gives  them  strength  not 
only  to  overcome  sin  but  to  comnnce 
others.  The  Koreans  who  were  at  the 
original  meetings  have  gone  forth,  like 
Wesley’s  converts,  far  and  wide, 
preaching  the  faith.  And  like  Wes- 
ley’s converts,  their  preaching  has  been 
wonderfully  successful — so  much  so 
that  there  are  not  a few  who  say  that 
it  is  through  Korea  that  the  light  of 
Christianity  will  shine  on  the  Far 
Eastern  World. — Rev.  Lord  William 
Gascoyne-Cccil  ( Church  of  England), 
in  the  London  Times. 


ahr  iHtrarlrs  of  fHc&mt  Itttssuma 


After  Twenty  Years. 

OREA,  so  recently  the  Hermit  Kingdom, 
has  come  to  be  the  miracle  of  modern 
missions,  and  by  every  token  is  soon  to 
be  a Christian  nation.  Twenty  years 
ago  the  missionary  had  to  make  opportunities ; 
now  he  has  to  dodge  them  for  self-protection. 
Then  the  natives  entertained  him  with  guffaws 
of  laughter  and  jeers  at  the  name  of  Jesus;  now 
they  greet  him  with  enthusiasm  as  a messenger 
of  Christ.  Then  he  was  glad  to  speak  to  a small 
group  of  noisy  and  indifferent  people ; now  he 
stands  before  hundreds  of  upturned,  eager,  tear- 
stained  faces.  Then  he  wondered  at  their  in- 
difference ; now  he  marvels  at  their  intense  in- 
terest. Then  he  must  search  for  or  build  a 
place  in  which  to  preach ; now  they  build  a 
house  and  send  for  him.  Then  the  problem  was 
for  the  preacher  to  get  a hearing;  now  the  prob- 
lem is  for  the  people  to  get  a preacher.  The 
like  of  it  has  never  been  since  Pentecost,  and 
probably  will  never  be  again.  It  has  been  re- 
served for  the  Church  of  modem  times  to  wit- 
ness the  sublime  spectacle  of  “a  broken-hearted 
nation  turning  to  Christ.” 

Signs  Following. 

For  more  than  three  years  a revival  of  mar- 
velous sweep  and  power  has  been  going  on. 
What  Methodists  call  an  old-fashioned  revival 
is  wonder  enough  in  an  Oriental  country,  but 
that  is  only  the  beginning  of  wonders.  The 


greatest  marvel  of  all  is  the  depth  and  in- 
tensity of  the  spiritual  manifestations.  Sobs, 
cries  for  mercy,  open  confessions  of  specific  sins, 
and  rejoicings  of  the  justified  not  uncommon- 
ly continue  for  hours  at  a stretch.  It  is  not 
uncommon  for  those  who  have  stolen  or  de- 
frauded to  restore  the  property,  nor  for  those 
who  have  wronged  others  to  seek  their  forgive- 
ness. This  conviction  that  smites  like  a sword, 
this  sorrow  that  shakes  the  soul  like  a tempest, 
is  followed  by  complete  transformation  of  charac- 
ter, bearing  the  marks  of  the  Spirit’s  influence. 
This,  too,  in  a land  where  a score  of  years  ago 
they  did  not  so  much  as  have  the  idea  of  guilt 
or  forgiveness,  and  their  religion  consisted  not 
in  love  of  God,  but  in  fear  of  devils.  When 
Bishop  Candler  said  to  a missionary  of  another 
Church,  “Korea  presents  the  greatest  missionary 
opportunity  since  the  days  of  St.  Paul,”  that  mis- 
sionary exclaimed,  “When  did  St.  Paul  ever  see 
such  an  opportunity  as  this?”  When,  indeed? 

The  Spread  of  the  Good  News. 

The  Korean  Christians  have  what  the  Churcli 
in  America  has,  we  grieve  to  say,  largely  lost. 
They  have  the  spirit  of  personal  evangelism. 
They  believe,  and  therefore  speak.  They  spread 
the  tidings.  The  gospel  is  to  them  good  news, 
too  good  to  keep.  When  they  have  heard  it, 
with  joy  they  tell  their  neighbors.  The  Ko- 
reans are  helping  to  evangelize  Korea. 

Many  churches  are  built  where  a missionary 
has  never  been  seen.  They  reverse  the  order 
of  the  parable,  for  they  come  out  from  the 
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highways  and  hedges  and  compel  the  mission- 
ary to  go.  One  missionary  said  recently  that 
there  were  from  six  to  nine  thousand  inquirers 
on  his  circuit.  A missionary  of  our  own 
Church  wrote  that  2,650  persons  were  begging 
to  be  taught  and  received  into  the  Church,  many 
of  whom  had  never  heard  a missionary’s  voice. 
His  grief  was  that  there  were  not  enough  mis- 
sionaries to  reach  them,  and  the  pleading  of 
many  must  go  unheeded. 

When  our  pastors  are  holding  prayer-meetings 
with  empty  benches,  missionaries  in  Korea  have 
frequently  from  seven  hundred  to  one  thousand 
at  prayer-meeting.  When  preachers  in  America 
are  using  every'  device  their  ingenuity  can  sug- 
gest to  draw  a crowd,  Korean  preachers  are 
preaching  to  men  at  one  hour  and  women  at 
another  that  they  may  be  able  to  house  their 
crowds  with  some  approach  to  comfort.  Nor  arc 
Koreans  listless  or  merely  curious ; but  “when 
the  lesson  is  read,  they  all  read ; when  the  hymn 
is  announced,  they  all  sing;  in  prayer  they  all 
bow  their  faces  to  the  floor,  and  any  one  of  them 
who  is  a Christian  will  lead  in  prayer.”  What 
a joy  it  must  be  to  break  the  bread  of  life  to 
souls  thus  hungry ! 

Optimism  Justified. 

The  growth  of  the  past  few  years  justifies 
such  optimism.  Mr.  C.  V.  Vickery,  Secretary  of 
the  Young  People’s  Missionary  Movement,  after 
a visit  to  the  country  last  year,  said  that  in 
Pveng  Yang,  where  work  was  begun  only  fif- 
teen years  ago,  more  than  a thousand  attended 
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one  church;  that  a missionary  was  driven  away, 
from  Kang-Lao  fifteen  years  ago,  while  on  the 
Sunday  before  Mr.  Vickery’s  visit  that  same 
missionary  went  again  to  that  city  and  was  wel- 
comed by  four  hundred  Christians  at  the  boat 
landing  and  by  thirty-five  hundred  Christians  in 
the  city,  and  on  Sunday  he  preached  to  fifteen 
hundred  people  and  baptized  one  hundred  and 
thirty  new  converts.  Mr.  James  S.  Gale  writes 
of  the  Presbyterian  work  in  Seoul:  “Here  in 
this  old  city,  that  sixteen  years  ago  was  a murky 
sink  of  heathenism,  to-day  we  have  ordained 
seven  ministers  of  the  gospel  out  of  a group 
of  five  thousand  believers.  While  nations  col- 
lapse and  kings  abdicate,  a new  power  is  arising 
that  is  to  work  its  wonders  by  the  mysterious 
agency  of  faith  and  hope  and  love.”  In  1897,  a 
Presbyterian  missionary  entered  Syen  Chun. 
There  was  then  but  one  Christian  in  town.  Now 
one-third  of  the  population  are  Christians;  there 
is  one  church  of  fifteen  hundred  members,  with 
ten  others  that  have  been  set  off  from  it. 

Our  Newest  Mission. 

Our  mission  in  Korea  was  projected  under  the 
direction  of  Bishop  Hendrix  in  1895.  He  and 
Dr.  C.  F.  Reid,  who  had  done  such  yeoman’s 
service  in  China  as  to  commend  him  for  the 
foundation  work  of  the  new  mission,  landed  at 
Seoul  in  October  of  that  year.  The  cruel  as- 
sassination of  the  Queen  had  occurred  only  a 
few  nights  before,  and  the  King  was  virtually  a 
prisoner  in  his  own  palace.  The  Bishop  and  his 
companion,  their  vessel  obstructed  by  a sand* 
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bar,  walked  twenty  miles,  and  the  next  day 
spent  their  first  Sabbath  in  “the  land  of  the 
morning  calm.”  A site  was  purchased  for  $3,- 
000,  for  which  the  Emperor  shortly  after  offered 
$20,000.  This  property  has  since  been  sold  at  an 
enormous  advance,  and  the  proceeds  more  ad- 
vantageously invested.  The  mission  received 
from  the  first  great  assistance  from  Mr.  T.  H. 
Yun,  by  whose  earnest  solicitation  in  part  the 
mission  was  undertaken,  and  he  is  now  giving 
the  intelligence  and  influence  that  was  formerly 
given  to  high  official  duty  entirely  to  the  work 
of  a missionary.  Dr.  Reid  wisely  projected  the 
work,  and  a noble  band  of  missionaries  have  kept 
it  going  with  marvelous  results. 

The  territory  alloted  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  lies  between  Wonsan,  Seoul,  and 
Songdo.  It  is,  or  was,  a solid  block  of  heathen- 
ism for  which  we  became  responsible.  It  com- 
prises a population  of  about  2,000,000.  In  a re- 
cent letter  from  one  of  our  missionaries  he  de- 
clares that  if  the  Board  will  furnish  men  and 
money  to  man  and  equip  the  work,  in  ten  years 
this  population  can  be  evangelized. 

Here  we  have  34  men  and  women  whose  cour- 
age and  optimism  know  no  bounds,  but  they  are 
human.  They  are  embarrassed,  not  by  closed 
doors,  but  by  more  open  doors  than  they  can 
enter.  They  and  the  situation  plead  for  more 
men,  not  to  hunt  sheep,  but  to  fold  and  feed 
those  already  found ; yet  we  have  only  one  to 
every  60,000  of  the  population.  Think  of  one 
preacher  in  an  American  town  of  60,000,  with 
no  teacher,  physician,  or  Sunday-school ! 

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Our  Success. 

In  this  brief  space  we  have  gathered,  with 
only  a handful  of  missionaries,  181  groups  of 
converts,  with  1,988  members,  and  built  89  chap- 
els, 48  of  which  were  built  last  year  almost  en- 
tirely by  the  native  Christians.  We  have  en- 
rolled 1,881  in  Sunday-schools.  There  has  been 
a gain  of  62  per  cent  in  membership  in  the  past 
nine  months.  At  that  rate  in  the  whole  Church 
we  should  gain  1,300,000  a year.  For  each  or- 
dained misisonary  the  gain  the  past  year  was 
at  the  rate  of  112,  while  in  the  whole  Church  the 
average  was  about  2l/2.  Thus  each  missionary  in 
Korea  was  instrumental  in  swelling  the  member- 
ship of  the  Church  almost  fifty  times  as  fast  as 
the  average  pastor. 

Roused  by  the  stirring  appeal  of  Bishop  Can- 
dler in  1907,  the  Church  furnished  money  to 
begin  an  intermediate  school  at  Songdo,  under 
the  noble-hearted  Korean,  Mr.  T.  H.  Yun.  This 
school,  begun  in  a ginseng  shed,  now  numbers 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pupils,  and  will  soon  be 
in  a new  and  commodious  building.  Tributary 
to  this  school,  primary  schools  are  being  organ- 
ized. These  are  run  at  a cost  of  $20  a year, 
and  are  being  supported  as  specials,  under  prom- 
ise that  after  five  years  they  will  be  self-sup- 
porting. The  purpose  is  to  establish  forty  or 
fifty  of  these  in  various  sections  of  the  country. 

A hospital  has  been  completed  and  opened  at 
Songdo,  and  another  at  Wonsan. 

The  building  of  churches  is  a burden  of  which 
the  Board  is  relieved.  The  Koreans,  though  an 
exceedingly  poor  people,  build  their  own  churches. 

8 


We  have  had  to  build  only  in  the  cities  where 
the  expense  is  too  great  for  the  native  ability. 
Their  liberality  shames  those  of  us  who  do  not 
know  poverty  as  they  endure  it. 

Specials. 

One  hundred  dollars  a year  will  support  a na- 
tive helper.  An  indefinite  number  of  these  are 
needed,  and  can  be  had.  Sixty  dollars  will  pro- 
vide a home  for  a native  worker,  including 
ground  and  building.  Twenty-five  dollars  a year 
will  sustain  a student  in  the  Songdo  School,  a 
most  inviting  opportunity  for  a League  or  Sun- 
day-school. Twenty  dollars  will  support  a pri- 
mary school  tributary  to  the  Songdo  School,  a 
great  work  at  small  cost. 

The  Demand. 

Our  overworked  missionaries  are  asking  for 
ten  new  missionaries  and  one  new  mission  sta- 
tion this  year  to  man  our  share  of  the  territory 
sufficiently  for  its  evangelization.  If  they  are 
not  sent  soon,  it  may  require  two  or  three  times 
as  many.  If  they  do  not  get  it  and  more,  then 
the  Church  that  sent  them  is  not  worthy  of 
them,  much  less  of  the  honor  God  has  conferred 
upon  it  in  this  matchless  opportunity. 

Who  would  dare  to  limit  the  triumphs  of  the 
gospel  in  this  land  of  promise  in  the  next  ten 
years?  We  remember  to  have  heard  Bishop 
Wilson  say  in  a missionary  address  many  years 
ago : “The  Church  needs  the  spectacle  of  a hea- 
then nation  redeemed  and  transformed  by  the 
gospel.”  That  need  seems  about  to  be  met.  What 
a stimulus  to  faith  and  effort  the  prospect ! It 
9 


is  thus  as  Bushnell  exclaimed:  “The  heathen  are 
saving  the  Church.”  How  terrible  the  shame  of 
those  to  whom  He  who  stands  among  that  hun- 
gry-hearted people  shall  have  to  say:  “I  was 
hungry,  and  ye  gave  me  no  meat !” 

Will  the  eyes  of  the  Church  ever  be  opened 
before  the  harvest  is  past?  No  doubt  the  an- 
gels are  eager  to  have  a part  in  this  work,  which 
they  have  waited  so  long  to  see.  As  for  those 
made  a little  lower  than  the  angels,  they  are 
concerned  about  the  price  of  cotton,  the  rise 
and  fall  of  stock  markets,  the  cut  of  their 
clothes,  and  the  next  function,  while  a sobbing 
nation  stretches  out  pleading  hands  and  a loving 
Lord  holds  out  a crown  of  honor. 


Bibliography. 

The  Call  of  Korea.  Underwood  $o  75 

With  Tommy  Tompkins  in  Korea.  Under- 
wood   1 25 

The  Vanguard.  Gale  1 35 

Korean  Sketches.  Gale  75 

The  Topknot.  Mrs.  Underwood  1 25 


Board  of  Missions  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South 
Nashville,  Tenn. 


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